Telecoms firms in revenue decline

Published: 16 July 2019

ZIMBABWE's telecoms sector has suffered a $37,1 million decline in revenue for the first time ever in the past four years.

The latest Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) sector performance report for the first quarter of 2019 indicated the shocking major revenue decline, projected to increase in the second quarter.

Experts in the sector have decried government refusal to hike prices, and also said operation costs have also shot up, with city council-rented base stations shooting up by more then 100 percent.

The last "price review" happened when all telecommunication service providers aligned their prices to the US$ equivalent after authorities removed a peg for its surrogate bond notes and electronic dollars in January.

However, this has been overtaken by events after the government introduced Statutory Instrument 142 which banned the use of foreign currencies, meaning the rates have only been increased to that last trading date of 1:3 to the dollar. - dailynews